New investments have increased Nigeria’s oil rigs from eight in 2021 to 46 rigs as of July this year, representing a 475% surge over the four-year period, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has reported.
The commission’s Chief Executive, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, who gave these figures during a workshop organized for journalists on Wednesday in Abuja, crude oil producers operating in the country had invested $8 billion on rig infrastructure as part of the efforts to boost their output in the hydrocarbon resources industry.
According to him, the investments between 2022 and 2025, has resulted in enhancing drilling activity leading to the drilling of 236 wellbores to total depth since 2022 and raising the nation’s rig count to 46 as of July 2025.
He explained that the improvements in the rig counts align with the NUPRC’s effort to boost oil production and increase Nigeria’s crude oil production by one million barrels per day (1mb/d) from October 2024 to October 2026.
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Komolafe partly attributed the rig count growing trend to the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act in 2021 and the implementation of its key provisions on investment by the commission.
He said: “The commission commenced operations just less than four years ago. We took off at a time when the production declined to about one million barrels, but now, we are oscillating around 1.7 million barrels.
“Rig count was also at an abysmal level. And of course you know that rig count is a very key metric for measuring vibrancy and performance in the industry, because it is a key equipment on which you drill the oil and reveals the level of vibrancy, activities in the industry.
“And today, I can say proudly that the last time I checked, because I have my dashboard to evaluate where we are, on a daily basis. The rig count today is 46, and we are not stopping here. The signs are positive. The feedback in the industry has been very encouraging”, Komolafe added.
In his chart presentation at the event, the NUPRC’s Senior Manager, Wells & Drilling Service, Sunday Ala, said the increased rigs had created more jobs and significantly improved economic activities in the oil producing region.
He disclosed that the rig count dropped to as low as 6 in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, adding the enactment of the PIA 2021 helped in gradually raising the oil rigs, which rose to 24 by January 2023.
It would be recalled that in 2023, President Bola Tinubu mandated the NUPRC to adopt strategies to improve the performance of the upstream petroleum sector, and last year signed Presidential Executive Orders to further open the oil industry for local and foreign investments.
